Tip Of The Iceberg

The tip of the iceberg is the visible part of your community.

It’s the forums, blogs, pictures, videos and content that you can see. It’s the result of a strong community.

Beneath the tip you have the mass. This is the sense of community, interpersonal communications and relationships that create the tip. You can’t see these, not from above.

If your tip is bigger than the mass you have a superficial community. It’s what happens when a community team panics and creates content themselves to impress their seniors.

If you want a bigger tip, you need to focus on creating a bigger mass.

The question isn’t “how can we get more content?”. The question is “how can we encourage more one-to-one conversations?”, “who can we introduce to each other?” “what would make members feel part of a group?”

Comments

[Greg Digneo]

Rich, great post today. The community can see right through the leaders who ask the question "How do we get more content?"

[Tom Harle]

Great post, thanks